Part I

Currently listening to Nick Drake's Pink Moon. The perfect song to accompany a moonlit-midnight cruise in a Volkswagen Cabriolet? Marketable.

Ajlouny sat Indian-style at his desk, his lanky knees dangling uncomfortably over the edge of his arm-less chair. He clutched his open book, its pages illuminated a marigold-orange by the emollient glow of the setting summer sun. Outside his window, he heard the gleeful yells of boys and girls frolicking. He guessed they were playing something dumb like freeze tag, or Red Rover, or even worse, Seven Minutes of Heaven. He hated that game. He knew somebody made it just because they thought putting the words seven and heaven together was the most clever thing in the world. He hated that, when people put the name before the game. Without a second's thought, he drew his curtains (which unfortunately were much too short for the length of his window) and sat in darkness, only a lonely strip of sunset light left to guide his reading. Still, he preferred this to the paintings, the Dorian Grays his window never ceased to illustrate. He hated his window. It was the only thing that connected him to the outside world.